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Timing Problem in Verbal Section

Sun Jul 09, 2017 4:27 am

I have scored 690 on GMAT Prep software. Q-49 (83rd percentile) & V-34 (69th percentile). There is no timing problem in Quant. In verbal, i have to guess on last 7-9 questions as i run out of time in the end. Official SC questions are more on awkwardness and wordiness, so i am not able to use splits and have to read all the answer choices completely and it takes time. In critical reasoning also, it takes time to read the question stem and all 5 choices. I am not able to comprehend quickly the language of most of the questions, question stems, passages and answer choices of SC, CR and RC of GMAT Prep exam. It is not everyday English which we find in newspapers, magazines or TV. However, my accuracy in verbal section is good on questions attempted by me. As far as my preparation is concerned, i have thoroughly completed the following guides.
SC - Manhattan, SC Grail, OG13 and OG-Verbal
CR - Manhattan, Powerscore, OG13 and OG-Verbal
RC - Manhattan, OG13 and OG-Verbal

Nothing is helping me to improve my speed on verbal.

Please advise as to how to increase my speed in verbal. If i am able to complete verbal in time, i can get a much higher score.

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GMAT/MBA Expert

Here is an immediate solution: rather than taking the time your need to solve every problem fully, then running out of time on the last 7-9 questions, SKIP 7-9 questions intermittently throughout the verbal section.

Because of the adaptive scoring on the test, missing a string of questions at the end will hurt your score far more than missing scattered questions throughout. Compare what happens when you run out of time:

... versus what happens when you skip intermittently:

Some people (especially people whose first language is not English) will never be able to speed up on the verbal while maintaining accuracy; the test is simply too difficult for that.

Rather than focusing your attention on how to speed up (i.e. change your own processing), focus on developing a solid game plan (i.e. change your strategy). Analyze all of the CATs & practice problems you've done, and determine:
- types of questions that are more worth your time: ones you're likely to get right
- types of questions that are NOT worth your time: ones you're likely to get wrong regardless. Plan to skip these.

Then, develop a timing strategy:
- what are your timing benchmarks?
- how will you set up your yellow pad according to these benchmarks?
- what will you do if you're behind?